Our Staff Picks: TV Shows to Watch the Week of Oct. 17, 2016

Welcome back to Tune In: our new weekly newsletter, offering a guide to the best of the week’s TV.

Each week, Variety’s TV team will be combing through the week’s TV schedule, selecting our picks. We’ll tell readers what to watch and when/how to watch it. This week, “The Walking Dead” makes its highly-anticipated return, plus a familiar TV face makes his way to a brand new streaming series.

“Chance,” Hulu, Wednesday

Hugh Laurie is a TV doctor yet again in Hulu’s new drama, in which the “House M.D.” star plays Eldon Chance, a neuropsychiatrist whose practice puts him in touch with patients dealing with mental illness and traumatic brain injuries. Though Variety critic Maureen Ryan is not a fan of the series, Laurie’s star-power may be reason enough to check out “Chance” for yourself — especially because it’ll run for at least two seasons.

“Chopped: Beat Bobby Flay,” Food Network, Thursday, 10 p.m.

The fan-favorite culinary competition takes yet another turn in the kitchen with a new special-edition tournament: none other than Bobby Flay will sit at the judges table during the four-part special, which culminates on Nov. 10 with the final episode featuring Flay going head-to-head with the amateur chefs.

“Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” CW, Friday, 9 p.m. (CRITICS PICK)

One of the smartest and most original new shows of 2015 returns in terrific form, with Rebecca (Rachel Bloom) as obliviously manipulative as ever, and her best friend Paula (Donna Lynne Champlin) trying hard to resist the lure of the drama Rebecca effortlessly creates. Along with wickedly funny and engaging songs and delightfully sharp characterizations, loyal viewers will get to see where things stand between Rebecca and her ultra-crush, Josh (Vincent Rodriguez III). But more importantly, there’s an update on the budding relationship between Rebecca’s boss, Darryl (Pete Gardner) and White Josh (David Hull), which is one of the sweetest and most delightful romances on TV. The biggest problem with this show and its sterling CW stablemate “Jane the Virgin” is that they don’t unleash fresh episodes every night. Goodness knows many of us can really use the intelligent satire and smart escapism they provide at the moment.

Max Landis’ series adaptation of the fan-favorite Douglas Adams novels has been making noise among our TV staffers. “Dirk Gently” stars Elijah Wood as the reluctant assistant to the titular detective in this BBC America comedic drama.

“The Walking Dead,” AMC, Sunday, 9 p.m.

How many millions of viewers will tune in to find out the identity of Negan’s (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) unlucky victim? We’re taking bets in the Variety newsroom — and we’ll all be watching.